Martinsburg gazette. (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1886-1887, 1887-01-14

a sEYENTEEN-YEAR OLD BOY MUIR
BERs HIS EMPLOYER.
Scattering the Dismembered Remains
Along the Wayside.

Z James e. Nowlin, boy who was arrested
for killing his employer, George A. Goldman,
a Somerville Mass milkman, and scatter
ing the dismembered body along the high
way in two towns, has made fun confession
of the crime. Nowlin says he killed young
Goldman at 5 o'clock in the morning. The
deed was done in Ccdman's stable He says
that be had besn thinking oft for some days,
excited thereto by Codman,s boastful way of
showing money. and expected tosecure about
$500, with which he intended to leave that
part of the country He slipped up behind
the victim and stabbed him in the side of the
neck with butchers knife. He severed an
artery ana Goldman fell to the floor and died
almost instantly. He then put the body UNI
der pung, covered it up and went on his
milk route taking his brother with him !.
He returned about IL o'clock, put up bis
team and went to dinner After dinner he
went to the stable. cleaned UP the traces OF
the crime as well as he could, and then do
liberated as to the disp sition Of the body.
He finally decided to take it away in the
pung and secrete sit somewhere until he
could safely get rid of it, He considered
the weight of the body, and to make
it easier to handle and to hide the traces Of
his CHASTITY load he concluded to dismember
the left leg close to the body and then the
right arm Thinking that with these mem
bers gone he could easily handle what was
left, he placed the body and the severed
parts in the back part of his pung and
, covered it with the rubber horse blanket
which was subsequently found near the body,
and also put the axe into the sleigh. Before
starting he tidied things up in the stable, de-
stroying what he could Of the marks left after
his rough mode Of dissection. He con-
cluded then to secure the money for
which he Lad committed the crime,
and started off with the turnout and the
body for Codman's boarding house. He left
the team standing few doors from the
house aud then went in, telling the landlord
that Goldman was going away for an
indefinit, time with man and had
sent him for his money and other things.
to get articles of apparel, and from there he
carried OF the desk containing about $275 in
money and other articles of value. He re-
turned to the team and drove off toward
Lexington.
After driving awhile he began to realize
the enormity of his crime and became moro
and more frightened as he drove along, inn
agining that all who saw him knew Of the
dreadful burden he was carrying His fears
worked so much upon him that when he
came to lonely part of the road and
was free from observation he took the
DOuy Ouu ~ tu0 puHS anu, nal ITenZleQ Dy
his fear OF detection, seized the axe aud
chopped the head off and smashed the face
until he thought it would be unacceptable.
He then threw the head and an arm over
wall, returned to the road, lifted the
body into the .pung and started or
again. After driving about mile and q
half he again alighted and threw the boly
into some shrubbery. where it was after
ward found. The left leg he secreted in
some bushes near by. After deposit
ing the body he took the rub.
Der blanket which had hidden the
remains in the pung and threw it, as he
thought, over the dismembared body, jumped
into the pung and drove Off. The blanket,
however, fell short of its mark and left the
body exposed. His hideous mission occupied
him about four hours.
James Edward Nowlin is q handsome
young man, little over seventeen years old
and is intelligent looking He is one of
four brothers who live in Someryille
While nothing really bad is known Of
the brothers, they have the reputation
of being hot -blooded and wild The father
OF the family, it is stated, hanged himself in
the penitentiary in the provinces. His de-
parture from Somerville a few years ago was
fastened by somewhat questionable acts.